


Interesting Times (The Messed Remix)

by Sole_Sakuma



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Community: jentfic_remix, Gen, Remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-19
Updated: 2011-09-19
Packaged: 2017-10-24 03:01:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/258206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sole_Sakuma/pseuds/Sole_Sakuma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jun, Ohno, Sho and Aiba get superpowers. Nino tries to deal with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interesting Times (The Messed Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Interesting Times](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/4684) by __sine. 



> [ ](http://users.livejournal.com/__sine/profile)
> 
> [ **__sine** ](http://users.livejournal.com/__sine/)
> 
> , I utterly adore your fics. I hope you don't hate this too much!

10.

  
_Earlier this afternoon, four members of Johnny’s Entertainment group Arashi were involved in an accident while filming a segment for a variety show._

_While on location at Tohoku University, Ohno Satoshi, Sakurai Sho, Aiba Masaki and Matsumoto Jun were introducing a revolutionary new reactor when the machine malfunctioned and imploded upon itself, causing a minor tremor that was felt throughout the entire university campus._

_All six of the people inside the reactor room at that time were unconscious when the rescue team arrived, but were otherwise unhurt. Investigations are under way, but the police are still puzzling over the nature of this accident, especially since all camera footage appears to have been destroyed in the explosion._

  
9.

  
It was a normal day, but all it takes is one bad one to change everything forever.

Nino switched on his autopilot mode and replied question after question after question. _Of course, working with everybody has been great and the set atmosphere was friendly. Oh, yes, I am proud of the movie. No, it wasn't that kind of relationship. No, I don't diet. Thanks, I'm aware I have a charming smile. No, I don't think you can do that with a banana._

The journalists looked like a gigantic blob monster with a thousand eyes made of light and Nino focused on the distant figure of his manager, sitting on the back of the room. The manager kept an eye on every journalist, every cameraman, every photographer and Nino was sure that the guy asking weird questions about magical bananas would be surely be fired and then blacklisted.

Then he saw his manager pick up his cellphone and go white. His mind juggled a thousand negative thoughts.

Girlfriend. Worse. Maybe wife. _Child?!_ Drugs. Alcohol. Accident. Accident with wife and children on drugs.

He couldn't wait to find out and he was about to stand up, but the tide of questions didn't weaken, so Nino went on with a fake smile. He was a talented actor, after all, and the ability to look unaffected and affable even in the worst scenarios was key in an idol's life. _Yes, Arashi is deeply important for me. No, no plans for a drama. Maybe next year. Yes, I like Ohno's art... Yes, I like Sakurai's show. No, I don't like Matsumoto's cooking, it's too fancy. Yes, I do like Aiba's family restaurant._

  
8.

  
Nino looked at the extensive electrical damage in Jun's apartment and sighed dramatically. Just thinking about the cost made him wince. One week later and the apartment still didn't have electricity. At least he wasn't shouldering the bill, but Jun _was_ staying at his place for the time being. Good friends and all.

Since Jun needed more than three changes of clothes, they had gone there to let Jun pick some more. And now he was waiting, lying on the couch and staring at the ceiling. He could hear Jun opening and closing the closet in the bedroom.

'And just because you're extremely bad with technology, now I'll never be able to play videogames here again,' Nino said, just to fill the silence. 'I should study electronics, don't you think? Or become an electrician. It'd probably be faster than waiting for the company to fix it.'

'Oh, shut up. They are fixing it this week. Everything will go back to normal and then you can come and play to your heart's content.'

'And they will be cold beer too? And it'll be a party?'

Jun entered the room with a full bag and a frown. 'But promise me it won't be like the Penguins and Strippers Debacle.'

'I, for one, think Ryo looked fetching in heels.' Jun raised his eyebrows and Nino threw his hands in the air. 'But I promise. No evil plans... this time.'

  
7.

  
Nino arrived to the hospital first. His heart pounded with dread, following the feverish rhythms of a mind trying to figure out when exactly his life had gone wrong and why trips to the hospital were becoming a common occurrence.

Sooner or later, it wouldn't be 'routine check-ups'. Sooner or later, it wouldn't be miracles. Someday, instead of Jun standing in the middle of a crater unharmed or Aiba running at impossible speeds, it would be... worse. And he couldn't bear that thought.

He couldn't say it, though. The other would think he was weak or at least deeply pessimistic. They had always manage to win in the end, why would it be any different this time?

Nino swallowed and promised to never let them lose.

  
6.

  
Nino sat on his bed, in the dark. He could smell the storm coming and he heard thunder rolling in the distance. He wondered how Jun was faring in the hospital. Maybe he was consoling an elder woman. Maybe the kids in the hospital needed an idol to cheer them up. Maybe he had developed a phobia of storms and that'd be bad for a band named _Arashi_.

 _What if...?_ , he thought and shook his head. Just otaku ramblings. Pure fantasy. Life was not a shounen manga.

But Aiba was faster than he should be. And while surviving a lighting strike wasn't that unheard of, creating huge craters sure was. Maybe instead of a phobia, Jun had developed...

But no, he had to stop the flights of fancy. It was just wish fulfilment. His friends were special, but they weren't superheroes. They were idols. Role-models in ridiculous, colourful suits trying to inspire people to do better.

Three hours later, lying on the floor and seeing sparks flare up in Jun's hands, he realized that that was the exact definition of a superhero.

  
5.

  
_In a press conference held on Monday afternoon, members of pop supergroup Arashi stated that they would use their new-found ‘powers’ “only for the good of society”._

_Member Matsumoto Jun (28) told reporters that he was “very surprised at this turn of events”, but was determined to “exercise this ability responsibly, if at all”. Matsumoto was reticent when asked for exact details about his power, which appears to involve some degree of lightning manipulation._

_Aiba Masaki (29) echoed this sentiment, although he also mentioned in jest that his new ability to travel at great speed with little fatigue might serve him well for quick trips to the convenience store._

_It is not clear what the government’s stand on this startling new development is, but as leaders around the globe begin to sit up at news of Japan’s “real life superheroes” it is evident that Arashi is, indeed, ‘creating a storm throughout the world’._

Nino read the newspaper and laughed. The good of society was important, yes, but what the agency didn't know didn't hurt them.

Aiba had been easy to convince - fun being a magical word -. Now Nakai's hat collection was at the top of the Tokyo Tower and Aiba was too fast to be caught.

Jun was proving to be difficult, though. _Yes, I know I'm using it for my solo, Nino, but work and fun are different things. I won't participate in a Battle of the Sparkles with Kimutaku, okay?'_

Nino twisted his mouth. Jun had no sense of fun.

  
4.

  
After putting away his PSP one too many times without really intending to, Nino realized what Sho's power was, but it was the aftermath of Aiba's pranks that showed the true extent of it.

Nino was trying to solve a crossword - apparently, Sho's suggestions lingered in your mind - when Nakai's stomped into the room shaking a tore hat in one hand and a towel in the other. Nino shrunk into his seat.

'I will get you fired, you know? And let me tell you this, punk, no matter how far you run, I'll have my revenge.'

Sho stood up and straightened his shirt. 'We are very sorry, Nakai-san, but we... I hope you will forgive Aiba's stupidity. He can't help it.'

Nakai took a step back, frowning, and then he smiled like a ventriloquist dummy on Zoloft, but it wasn't Nakai's creepy smile that scared Nino. It was Sho's. 'You are right. He has always been this way, I shouldn't be this mad,' Nakai said.

Nino hit Sho's with his newspaper before he could snag an invitation to appear on SMAPxSMAP.

'Get that under control,' Nino snapped. 'There’s nothing funny about manipulating other people.'

'Because you are honest and straightforward, right?'

'I don't have freaky mutant powers, Sakurai, I'm just smart. Some of us weren't born lucky,' Nino said in a one of those moments you then spend a lifetime trying to wish away.

  
3.

  
He could feel it overwhelming his whole body. Running in his blood. Filling his lungs. Weighing down in his stomach. Resonating in his brain.

Jealousy. Fear. Loneliness. Envy. Guilt.

He gripped Ohno's jacket as if a cyclone was raging around them and Ohno was the last thing left in the world. And Ohno hugged him back. Some things didn't change.

'I suppose when your power manifests itself it’ll be something ridiculously cool like freezing water or walking through walls,' Nino grumbled.

Ohno laughed, but it didn't dissipate the bitterness, it didn't clear the air. 'I think my power’s pretty silly, by your standards.'

'It’s a mutant superpower, Satoshi; there’s nothing silly about that. What is it, then?'

'I can talk to plants and animals.'

Nino made a pause and he tried to let the dark cloud out, but he just pushed it deeper inside.

'You’re right,' he said, 'that is rather lame.'

'Well, you've always been the cool one.'

Nino laughed. 'Maybe I could learn to program stuff. Or chemistry. Or fashion design for superheroes,' he said.

 _Or maybe I could learn to build bombs,_ he thought.

  
2.

  
Why the world needs to learn from a group of Japanese superheroes

_... Japan made some actual steps towards stricter regulations on dioxins this month after a large-scale awareness campaign sparked off by a two-hour episode that featured Arashi’s Ohno Satoshi communing with trees in a forest north of Niigata Prefecture._

_In the meantime, Ohno’s bandmate Aiba Masaki reportedly rescued five people from a burning building after he spotted the fire from the window of the television station he was in. He pulled the four children and their mother from a two-story dwelling twenty minutes away from the station before the building could collapse. After saving the family, he waited with them for the arrival of the fire brigade and ambulance crew before running back to the studio to complete the filming on schedule._

Nino was not surprised not to see his name. Some people were better left in the shadow and he could not stand next to his friends now. They outshone him. They needed people who would make that brightness shine even brighter, not pitiful friends who dulled it.

  
1.

  
He liked the modified cars Mitsubishi gave the others. He didn't get one.

Ohno insisted he went with them on their missions, but after Nino ended up in the hospital with a broken leg and a concussion, he didn't insist anymore.

Nino could feel the tendrils of their bond tighten around him and their worry was starting to be noticeable. That wouldn't change, not even if Nino was a bored patient at some private and almost secret clinic and they were off to save the world.

Aiba would bring him food and visit him almost every day.

Jun couldn't make it that often, but he sent foreign books about lonely and misanthropic heroes. Nino never even peaked at one.

Ohno made the plants in his room bloom even if it was winter and Nino blamed him for the crows that were constantly at his window.

He asked Sho to buy him every volume of _Dragon Ball_ and _Dragon Ball Z_. By the time he left the hospital, he had read them all. It was the first time he actually noticed Krillin.

Then he decided that's not who he was.

  
0.

  
Every good supervillain has his reasons.

And Nino would never let know anybody his, but he was sure Arashi knew, even if they didn't understand. Even if they still asked him to come back.

Even if cats carried messages from Ohno.

Even if Jun spelled his name with thunder.

Even if Sho never once tried to brainwash him again.

Even if he could see Aiba's blur leave scattered words around him.

_Come home._

Nino saw them shine and he would do anything in his power to make them shine brighter. He would burn the world, just to see them shine.

Every supervillain has his reasons and every hero has his shadow.

And Nino couldn't be a hero.


End file.
